Otaku Adventures: Kyoto Manga Museum
So it is probably no big secret that I'm a huge Otaku (a Japanese term describing people who like anime and manga obsessively. It's true. I've been meeting to start a serises of tags for my Otaku adventures and I'm glad this could be my fist one. I've lived so close to the Kyoto Manga Museum, finally, on my birthday celebration weekend, I gathered the courage and went with my friend Joe. And God- it must be what heaven looks like. - In fact, I think I've acheived a major childhood dream of mine.
After wandering around Kyoto only slightly lost, was found the normal looking building with ease. The thing that clued us in that it was the manga museum was the hoarde of cosplayers in the garden having photoshoots. I gawked at their gorgeous costumes for a view minutes before heading into the museum. Tickets were only 500 Yen. We walked in and we instantly greeted with walls covered from head to toe in manga. The entire museum is pretty much like this. They have some of the most classic of classic manga, and the awesome part about it is that people can pay 500 yen, sit down, and pretty much read manga all day long. IF ONLY I COULD FLUENTLY READ JAPANESE! People were standing on either side of me, absolutley engrossed in their manga. Multiple families brought their kids to the museum to read manga to them, or to read their own manga while their children picked out a kids manga. It was amazing.
There was also a booth for some of the manga institutes and the students were there with their artwork. The mascot for the museum, I was in awe of, was Osamu Tezuka's (creator of Astro Boy) Pheonix (a.k.a 火の鳥） It was gorgeous and staring right at me. I needed (and took) a picture.
On the second floor there was the exhibit. Which I was sooo excited about. Currently they have a exhibit on the workings of Watanabe Masako & Kai Yukiko two classical shojo artist. Their manga are exteremly rare to find now, and I don't believe there are any translations of them but their artwork speaks for itself. I find that I adore the classical shojo style as opposed to this new age style. While I like both, there is something about the old style that I grew up on and feels whimsical. Kind of like the artwork for Salior Moon.
Also in the exhibit hall was JUNE magazine one of the first Shojo (girl) manga magazines, and the first to print something of the Yaoi genre. Along with it, was a mini gallery for the artist Keiko Takemiya. Who is most well known for her manga Kaze to Ki no Uta. One of the FIRST recorded yaoi mangas. This woman shares the same gorgeous flowery artwork the I find classically beautiful, and is infact still alive today and teaching at a manga institute in Tokyo. I wish they would have had a bigger gallery of her stuff, but I was just happy to see some of her work on display.
After the exhibit all we explored more. There is't much else to the manga museum except, or course, the manga. There WAS a gallery area though, with fantastic bookshelves, where they gave a bit of information ABOUT manga in both Japanese and English. This was interesting for me, as they touched on topics such as doujinshi and the almost non-existant plagrisim laws in Japan. Case of point, Doujinshi. (fan created woks - usually manga- where artist take already established series and do a story of it with their own style. Then SELL it.
Next we went out to see the cosplayers. They were all pretty fantastic, adn in their own world. Even around the museum, they would be hanging on the stairs or the small crossway taking pictures of each other. they were very polite to us when we wanted to pass thruogh their photoshoots, and I may have stared. Just a little. Just I wish cosplay was as acceptable in the states, or that I had the time and money to put as much work into it as they OBVIOUSLY did. These people were in their element. There was even a place in the museum, a entire room, where cosplayers went to change and place all their customes. It was crazy!
After such a fun time at the museum, Joe and I found a few anime shops and I enjoyed being a fangirl once again. Surrounded by manga and fan books. Sometime I would like to come back to the museum and actually be able to pick up a book and know what I'm reading. Some day.
